


Saturated

by ellievolia



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dancing, Drinking, First Kiss, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 10:52:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5494517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellievolia/pseuds/ellievolia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Poe’s hands feel like brands on Finn’s body, even through his layers of clothing; telling Finn what to do without words, helping him try to shake off the stiffness he’s acquired in so many years of training, stiffness that still plagues his movements now.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saturated

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something as I wanted to let out some of my feelings about this movie, which I loved. Concrit is welcomed; I am aware I may have gotten some SW-specific wrong. I hope you enjoy!!! If you want to contact me in private, I am at ellievolia on twitter and cakelessness on tumblr. Thanks go to Sarah for the efficient beta-ing, and to Lisa for the cheerleading.

It’s after Finn’s been healed up and moving about for about a month that Poe snaps. Finn knows - he’s moping around, something sad and worrying weighting down all his movements, even during his training as a fighter pilot. He does his best, he really does, and at least he’s training alongside Poe, who is his main source of - well, everything, with Rey gone. 

There’s a part of Finn that is mainly going through the training so that he can go and try to find Rey, even if he knows that it’s more or less a pipedream; by the time he’s confident enough to fly by himself she’ll probably be long gone, somewhere in the galaxy he has no clue about. He still makes plans in his head, just because he can, because he’s a dreamer. 

“Okay, that’s enough,” Poe says one day, a sudden outburst as he grabs Finn’s arm. He’s still wearing Poe’s jacket, scuffed and singed and perfect; he often falls asleep in it, not that he’d admit it.

“What?” Finn asks, genuinely confused by Poe’s frown and disappointed look. 

“Enough of the maudlin, Finn. We’re going out.” 

There’s something in Poe’s eyes, and Finn doesn’t have enough experience to really be able to decipher it, but it makes him nod anyway, looking down at Poe’s hand on his arm, still, warm through the leather. “Okay,” Finn says, stopping himself before he starts asking too many questions. 

Poe helps him up, and pulls him along. Finn likes Q’Dar; it’s similar to a few planets he’s been to, but he’s always enjoyed the verdant, green planets better than any others. It’s a lot more comfortable here than it is on Hoth or cursed Jakku - Force help him, he hopes never to have to go back to that place. 

“Meet me by the South entrance by sundown. I promise you’ll have fun,” Poe says, before walking away with a wave over his shoulder. “Sundown!”

“All right!” Finn replies, turning back to the base. Time to get back to reading everything he can about the Resistance, then. 

;;

The cantina is nothing more than a makeshift bar in a clearing, a couple of klicks away from the main base. There’s a band, too, and the music filters through the trees from a long way away, guiding Poe and Finn closer. There’s a generator humming, and the strings of lights plugged into it are twirled around trees, creating a circular perimeter bathed in colorful electric light. As they walk closer, Finn can see a dance floor and an eclectic band, playing the same kind of joyful music that was in the background of Maz Kanata’s place. 

It’s all kind of things Finn isn’t used to; it’s like relearning to walk, sometimes, just how different life is outside of the First Order. It’s not like he didn’t know anything, but back there he was just a number, and had few friends within the Stormtroopers. They didn’t get to live their life, they were mindless puppets, and now - now, even when he misses Rey and worries about her, Finn finds himself in these amazing places, a bar in the middle of the forest with people who respect him and treat him like a proper human being, and he’s. He’s trying to live it all. 

“C’mon,” Poe says with an excited grin, taking off at a light jog and guiding Finn through the light crowd to the bar. He gets them ale, tall glasses filled to the brim and topped with a head of foam that leaves a halo around Finn’s mouth and burns pleasantly down his throat. “It’s a homemade brew, can’t get much imported to these parts, but it’s good,” Poe adds, taking a long gulp of his own drink.

“It’s very good,” Finn replies after another mouthful, brushing his thumb along his top lip and licking the foam off, catching Poe looking at him with a funny look on his face. “What?”

Poe shakes his head, smirks. “Nothin’, buddy.”

“We only had moonshine, back with the Stormtroopers. Some floor cleaner it was, absolutely disgusting. But it got us drunk, which was the point,” Finn says, knowing that he sounds more wistful than he sounds - there weren’t that many good times.

“Did you -” Poe starts, then pauses, like he’s reconsidering his question and choice of words. “Was there anyone else...like you, over there?”

“Like me?”

“You know, other Stormtroopers wanting to do the right thing?”

Finn shrugs, draining his glass and leaving it on the bar. Poe gestures for another round wordlessly, and soon Finn has another full drink in his hand. He’s still surprised by the efficiency of the Resistance; it was ingrained in them that the Rebels were chaotic and messy. 

“I hope so. I don’t know. Camaraderie wasn’t encouraged.” 

Poe drops a hand on Finn’s arm, making him look up from his glass, into Poe’s smiling face, a comfort in the touch. “If there are, we’ll help them.”

Finn nods, shaky, and drinks a good half of his glass in one go, closing his eyes and letting the alcohol warm him down all the way to his toes. It’s so good, a hint of sweetness behind the roasted taste of the beer, and it wraps Finn’s thoughts in a delicious haze that makes everything easier to parse and deal with, suddenly. It’s like his thoughts are not rushing past him anymore, allowing him a moment to pick at them and discard them if they feel too difficult right now. 

It’s balmy outside and it’s loud around Finn and Poe, the music making Finn bob his head along with the rhythm, fingers tapping against the side of his glass unconsciously. He finishes his second drink, orders another one of the same, feeling the tops of his cheeks warm up. 

“I only used to try and get drunk to not have nightmares, you know,” Finn says after a moment, and Poe looks startled for a second, lips parted on an exhale. 

“Yeah, I know,” he says, trying to hide embarrassment by scratching the back of his head, looking away from Finn. “I get them too.” 

“You?”

Poe sighs, biting into his lower lip before taking a big mouthful of ale. He takes his time to swallow it down, giving himself a moment to get his thoughts together. “Sometimes I still can feel it - Ren’s pushing at my thoughts and memories and getting what he wants from me like that. I’ve never felt so...vulnerable,” Poe says, ending on a whisper that Finn has to strain to hear, leaning closer as he does. 

“Poe, I -” 

Poe shakes his head again, like he’s chasing the thoughts away, and smiles. For a second Finn feels like he’s watching Poe put on armor. 

“Nevermind. What’s done is done, you know? I couldn’t have stopped it. I’m no Jedi.” 

“Neither am I,” Finn replies with a grin and a shrug. His mind goes to Rey, but for once the thought of her doesn’t make him sad; he’s happy she’s pursuing her destiny. One of them should get to. 

Poe chuckles, holding a finger out. “Know what I am, though? Besides an exceptional pilot, obviously?”

“What?”

“An _excellent_ dancer,” Poe replies, putting his empty glass on the bar and taking a step towards the part of the clearing that amounts to a dance floor, close to the band and full of mingling Resistance members. Poe holds a hand out to Finn, who suddenly panics. 

“Oh no, no no! I can’t dance!”

“Yeah well, you gotta start somewhere, Finn!” Poe replies, reaching out and grabbing Finn’s forearm, pulling him along to the small crowd of dancers. The music is lively, and Poe immediately starts moving, light on his feet as he holds on to Finn, pulling him close. “It’s easy, just...follow the music,” he says, sliding his hands to rest over Finn’s hips, gently guiding him. 

Poe’s hands feel like brands on Finn’s body, even through his layers of clothing; telling Finn what to do without words, helping him try to shake off the stiffness he’s acquired in so many years of training, stiffness that still plagues his movements now. He looks jerky compared to Poe, who is all smoothness and confidence in the way his body moves. There’s something unaware about it, and Finn feels awkward about his own dancing, but Poe. Poe smiles at him, brilliant and fond, looking like he’s having the time of his life. 

“Move your feet,” he tells Finn, having to lean close to do so over the music, and Finn...does, following Poe’s example, their foreheads almost touching as they look at the grass being trampled by their feet. “That’s it, yeah! You’re a natural!” 

Poe laughs, his hands still tight around Finn, fingers curled into Finn’s shirt. They move together, not in sync with each other but in sync with the music, Finn enjoying the whole thing more and more, the alcohol he’s been drinking helping him loosen his moves and feel more confident with Poe close to him, radiating heat. At this point, they’re both slightly sweating at the temples and dizzy in the haze of lights and ale, sharing smiles that feel like secrets. The song that’s playing is fast-paced and features bass that makes the floor tremble under their feet as Finn shuffles backwards, forwards, to the sides, throwing his hips into the moves until he’s laughing too, earlier thoughts dissipating in the night as Finn allows himself to let the lights and music and Poe, _Poe_ , surround him and overwhelm him, a little. 

It’s all - it’s not like Finn has never felt attraction; he is attracted to Rey and was from the moment he laid eyes on her, after all, but this - he wants to tell Poe _you don’t know what you do to me _, because he himself can barely put a finger on it. Finn’s not only attracted to Rey because she’s beautiful, but he also likes her courage and her strength, how noble she is; his attraction to her is almost reverential, a little awed.__

__But Poe - Poe’s easy. Poe was easy from the beginning, from how accepting he was to trust Finn, and giving him a name, a real name, treating him like a human being and not just another number. Poe shows a willingness to closeness that draws Finn to him, starved for touch as he is, and there’s the simple fact that Poe seems to enjoy and actively seek Finn’s company. He _likes_ Finn, stripped down from the heroics and the armor, a scared kid with no idea what’s going to happen. _ _

__Poe, who grabs Finn’s hand and spins him around, laughing when Finn wobbles afterwards, unsteady on his feet. He grabs at Poe’s arms, the leather of his new jacket creaking under Finn’s finger, his eyes shining in the lights strewn above their heads._ _

__There’s a beat, between two songs, where the world seems to stop, chronometers all freezing, as they look at each other, Poe seems to hesitate, and Finn just - the Force be with him, he just stops thinking, as the music starts up again and he leans in, a little awkward and definitely emboldened by the alcohol, something urgent and off-center in the way he kisses Poe. And Poe could pull away, but he doesn’t, making a small sound that Finn feels more than hears. Poe readjusts them until it's just right, a hand at the back of Finn’s head, keeping him in place._ _

__Finn holds onto Poe even tighter, pressed against him from knees to chest, letting Poe dictate the pace of the kiss, happy to just learn what makes Poe groan, push closer. It seems to last forever, Finn’s brain fizzing contently; he grins all dopey when they pull apart, licking his lips absentmindedly. Poe laughs again, a happy open sound that makes Finn’s toes curl in his shoes._ _

__“Knew you were a natural,” Poe says, pulling away enough to twirl Finn again, who goes willingly, adding a little flourish. “Could still do with more practice, though.”_ _

__Finn laughs. “Aye aye, Black Leader.”_ _

__;;_ _


End file.
